


Paint Covered Soulmates

by musicals_musicals



Series: Newsies Stuff [7]
Category: Newsies - All Media Types, Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, M/M, Medda is the art teacher
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-25
Updated: 2018-08-25
Packaged: 2019-07-02 12:28:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,173
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15796530
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/musicals_musicals/pseuds/musicals_musicals
Summary: Soulmate AU where anything you write on your skin shows up on your soulmate’s skin in the same place.





	Paint Covered Soulmates

_Race $15_

“What the fuck does that mean?” Katherine watched the writing as it appeared on the back of Crutchie’s hand.

Crutchie stared at it cluelessly “I have no idea” His soulmate was interesting to say the least. They were clearly very forgetful, dates and times were always being written. Some of the things made less sense, sometimes there were things that seemed like ideas (Once it was just the words “Horse dressed as coffee cup”) maybe they were an artist. Crutchie’s favorite was when they started drawing or painting, he loved to watch the lines appear, or the colors spread across his arm.

“What does Race mean?” Kath asked

“Isn’t that what someone in your math class is called?” On the first day of school Katherine got back from math and announced she hated her class. Apparently most of the kids goofed off the whole time, there was just a huge group of friends that caused trouble and went to the school (They called themselves the Newsies, a nickname no one knew the origin of). The leader was Jack Kelly, a very cute boy who Crutchie kinda had a huge crush on.

“Oh yeah” Kath agreed “Maybe soulmate owes him money?” She suggested “You could ask”

“Uh, no.” Crutchie hated talking to people he didn’t know, it felt awkward and made him nervous. And it would be difficult to get Race alone, he was always surrounded by friends. If Crutchie talked to him he would also have to talk to whoever Race was with, and knowing his luck Race would be with Jack. Katherine dropped the subject and waved at Sarah Jacobs across the table. She came and sat down across from Crutchie.

“You have paint on your face again” Sarah said as a greeting. Crutchie’s hand moved to his cheek and Kath laughed.

“I can’t wash it off, it’s my soulmate” Crutchie explained, he had tried to wash off the paint that was always appearing on his face or arms but he couldn’t.

“I have an idea” Kath dug through her bag and pulled out a pen. She took Crutchie’s arm and started writing on it “Wash. Your. Face. Dumbass” She read off what she was writing.

“Kath that’s mean” Sarah argued “We both know Crutchie would never swear at his soulmate”

Their conversation dissolved into a pointless argument and Crutchie just watched his arm. Sarah and Katherine argued a lot, but ever since they realized they were soulmates the arguments started to end in making out, which always lead to Crutchie awkwardly sitting next to them. He watched as his soulmate started writing something:

_Oops : )_

Sarah stopped arguing with Kath to look at Crutchie with a badly disguised smile “You have more paint on your face” She pointed at the general area of his face. Sarah and Kath both dissolved into laughter and Crutchie rolled his eyes. He glanced in the window, there was already a small smudge of blue paint on his cheek but it looked like his soulmate had purposely wiped yellow paint across his nose and cheeks. The warning bell rang and they exchanged looks before shooting to their feet.

“Are you going to go to class with paint on your face?” Kath asked. She wiped at the paint a little, but it made no difference.

“I don’t have much of a choice” Crutchie reminded her. Going to class with paint on his face wasn’t ideal, but the paint wasn’t coming off until soulmate washed their face.

∞∞∞

Jack sighed and threw down his cards when it became apparent he was going to lose. You would think knew not to bet money against Race after three years of losing money. “I’m done”

“You own me fifteen dollars” Race reminded him, not even looking up from his cards. “Don’t forget”

“Yeah, yeah” He picked a pen up from where it was sitting on the floor and wrote a reminder. “I’m going to the art room” Race and Romeo didn’t even acknowledge him, they were too busy playing cards. Jack walked the long way to the art room and glanced at his arms. Blank. His soulmate clearly was much better at remembering paper existed, the only thing that ever showed up was a occasional time and location, or a random streak of ink.

“Jack Kelly” He had reached the art room and as usual Ms. Medda was sitting at her desk.

“Hey, Ms. Medda” He greeted. She stood up and walked around the desk.

“Give me a hug. I feel like I haven’t seen you in years” She pulled him into a tight hug and he grinned.

“You saw me this morning” Ms. Medda adopted him a few years go, and every morning she gave him and his sister Smalls a ride to school. He also saw her for art class third period.

“It’s been too long” She insisted. “What do you need?”

“I just wanna paint for a little while, can I use your art supplies?” Jack asked. Ms. Medda usually didn’t have classes sixth hour, but sometimes things came up and she needed the room.

“Of course” She handed him the keys and he set up one of the paintings he was working on.

He worked for a few minutes until he realized writing was appearing on his arm.

_Wash your face dumbass_

The handwriting wasn’t his soulmates, it was too messy. It was probably one of his soulmate’s friends. He reached up and realized there was blue paint smeared on his cheek, he wasn’t exactly sure where it came from. He wasn’t using blue paint and it was still wet. He decided to mess with his soulmate a little and wiped yellow paint across his nose and cheeks, then he dug through a drawer for a pen and wrote on his arm:

_Oops_

He added a smiley face for extra measure. He jumped when a warning bell rung and he raced to put everything away before rushing to class.

∞∞∞

Crutchie hated english class. Kath always teased him about it because he loved reading and writing, but english class just ruined it. He had no friends in the class so he was sitting next to a few random students. When he sat down he was surprised to see one of the kids that sat behind him was actually Race. He spun around in his seat so he could talk to him. “Race” Race’s head shot up from where he was staring at a book. “I have a question”

“Ask away” He leaned back in his seat and stared at Crutchie.

Now or never. Crutchie thought about how to fraze his (Weird) question “Who owes you fifteen dollars?”

Race laughed “A lot of people. Why?”

“Just wondering” Race clearly didn’t believe him, but Crutchie couldn’t think of a better excuse “Who owes you fifteen dollars, like today?”

Race was staring at him like he was nuts, but it looked like he was considering the question. His eyes caught on Crutchie’s arm and he smirked “Oh, that’s why you want to know”

Crutchie blushed and covered the words best he could “Can you just tell me?”

“Why do you have paint on your face?” Race asked, deflecting the question.

“I can’t wash it off” Crutchie explained.

“Oh” Race looked way too happy about something and Crutchie was regretting initiating this conversation. “Currently Jack, Romeo, Spot, Elmer, and Sarah Jacobs all owe me money”

“Thank you” Crutchie would ask Sarah why Race of all people thought she owed him money. He turned back to the book he was supposed to be reading and let the names bounce around in his head. Jack owes Race money. Jack is an artist who specializes in painting. Jack Kelly might actually be his soulmate.

The second the bell rang Crutchie shot out of his seat. He needed to talk to Kath and Sarah. They usually stopped at their lockers before leaving and he needed to catch them before they left. He darted through crowds and avoided running into people. He was doing pretty well until someone lightly pushed his back. It was enough to send Crutchie careening into the person in front of him “I’m so sorry” He pushed himself off the ground and realized he wasn’t actually on the ground.

“No problem” Jack seemed unconcerned that Crutchie had just knocked him over and was now practically sitting in his lap. Crutchie did the only thing he could think of closed his eyes. Maybe this was a dream. He was not sitting in Jack Kelly’s lap in the middle of the hallway. And Jack definitely didn’t have yellow and blue paint smeared across his face. “Charlie, you okay?”

 _He knows my name?_  “It’s Crutchie”

“Oh sorry” Jack looked around the hallway “Do you want to stand up?”

He seemed unaware they were both covered in paint “Sure” Crutchie shot to his feet and looked awkwardly around the hallway. Race was standing behind them and smirking, Crutchie had a feeling Race was the person who pushed him into Jack and now he knew why.

“Crutchie are you okay?” Crutchie realized he must have zoned out a little and pulled his focus back to Jack.

“Paint” The word came out quietly and Jack looked confused.

“What?” His eyes widened and his hand shot to his face “Oh”

“Crap” Crutchie turned around to see Sarah standing next to Race “Now I owe you fifteen dollars” She shoved Race’s shoulder. “Stop smirking”

“Do you want to talk?” Jack asked. He was refusing to meet Crutchie’s eye, instead staring at the entrance to the library.

“That would be a good idea” Crutchie agreed. He pointed at the library “Library?” Jack nodded and followed Crutchie into the library.

∞∞∞

What just happened? Jack was freaking out, he was sitting in the library with his soulmate! Crutchie’s face was covered in yellow paint. They sat down at an empty table, they were both waiting for someone else to start talking. Jack broke the silence “Soulmates?”

“Yeah” Crutchie nodded and refused to meet Jack’s eyes. What do you say to the person you’re destined to love for the rest of you life? “I maybe have had a crush on you for a really long time”

“Really?” Jack smiled and nudged Crutchie’s shoulder “How long?”

Crutchie laughed and Jack thought it was the most beautiful sound ever “I don’t even know. You’d have to ask Kath, she was there for it” They had been going to the same schools for as long as Crutchie could remember.

“If it makes you feel any better, I’ve had a crush on you since freshman year” Jack explained. He remembered watching Crutchie through middle school, once they got to high school he started complaining to Davey about his crush on Crutchie. Davey tolerated it until junior year when he insisted Jack either talk to Crutchie of get over his crush. That didn’t happen. Jack just stopped telling Davey about his crush and started complaining to Smalls instead, until now. “Davey was going to disown me as a friend because I wouldn’t stop talking about you”

“I’m touched” Crutchie teased. He leaned against Jack’s shoulder and grabbed Jack’s hand. They sat in silence, but this time it wasn’t awkward, it was just peaceful. They sat until Katherine ran into the library and winked at them.

“Crutch, do you need a ride? Because we need to leave” She explained, giving Crutchie a look that clearly meant  _We’re going to talk about this._

“I’m coming” Crutchie started to stand up but paused to look at Jack again. He leaned forward and kissed Jack’s cheek, before following behind Katherine “Not a word”

“I didn’t say anything” Katherine objected.

“You were thinking it” Crutchie insisted, bumping into Katherine’s shoulder.

“It’s just. Jack Kelly.” Katherine started laughing “I thought you would pine after him forever until you hooked up for a one night stand junior year of college and became ‘friends with benefits’”

“That was weirdly specific” Crutchie wasn’t sure how Kath came up with that scenario, and he didn’t think he wanted to know. “Why have you thought about it that much?”

“Because you. Never. Shut. Up. About. Jack Kelly” She poked his arm with each word.

“She’s right” Sarah butted into their conversation and started walking with them when the left the library.

“Fine, I see your point” Crutchie surrendered. “Also, Sarah why do you owe Race money?”

She smiled “I may have made a bet with him on if Jack was your soulmate,”

“Sarah!” Crutchie stared at her while Katherine started laughing. “You didn’t at least bet yes?”

“It seemed unlikely” She explained. Kath nodded along and Crutchie looked between them. “Though I am regretting that decision”

“Good!” Crutchie shook his head “You bet against me?!”

“You didn’t know either” Katherine reminded him

“I feel less bad about betting on you with Davey” It was only five dollars, and Crutchie won.

“Hey!”

“No regrets!” Crutchie stuck out his tongue and poked Sarah’s shoulder. This day had turned out much better than expected.

**Author's Note:**

> I love Katherine and Sarah with all of my heart. Also on tumblr @musicals-musicals.
> 
> Kudos and Comments make my day!


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